


Poison

by Starry_Storm_Phoenix



Category: Music RPF, Twenty One Pilots
Genre: Angst, Background Relationships, But then he realizes Josh genuinely isn't mentally okay, But they're worried, Dehydration, Delusions, Fainting, Gen, Hallucinations, He calls him crazy, Heavy Angst, Hospitalization, Hospitals, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Letters, Lots of it, Mental Health Issues, Psychosis, RPF, Schizophrenia, Suicide Attempt, Ty and Jenna try to be supportive, Tyler doesn't understand at first, and they are
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-07
Updated: 2020-12-08
Packaged: 2021-03-10 00:47:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 19
Words: 2,018
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27945533
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Starry_Storm_Phoenix/pseuds/Starry_Storm_Phoenix
Summary: Dear Tyler,I'm not crazy.Am I?
Relationships: Jenna Black & Josh Dun, Jenna Black & Josh Dun & Tyler Joseph, Jenna Black/Tyler Joseph, Josh Dun & Tyler Joseph
Comments: 2
Kudos: 4





	1. Chapter 1

Dear Tyler,  
The water tastes weird. I know it does. I think there’s something weird in it. But when I tried to talk to you about it, you gave me a weird look and told me there’s not. I’m not crazy.

Am I?


	2. Chapter 2

Dear Tyler,   
The water. Seriously, there’s something wrong with it. Why won’t anybody listen to me?! I think it’s trying to poison us. This isn’t like that “Obama’s turning the frogs gay” thing. The government is trying to poison us all. The “water” will make us sick.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright I'm not very confident and this is my first time posting my work on AO3 so I'm really nervous. Any feedback or support would be appreciated. I hope you like this and continue reading!


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As his mental health deteriorates, Josh does something terrible for his physical health.
> 
> *DON'T DO THIS*

Dear Tyler,   
I don’t drink water anymore. I won’t tell you because I know you don’t believe me and it would probably make you worry. Or think I’m crazy. It sucks that literally every drink has water in it.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The first "real" chapter.

He was at Tyler’s house when it happened. They were standing right next to the couch, about to sit down, when his unconscious body plummeted to the floor. Tyler managed to catch him from hitting his head on the coffee table in front of him. It all happened so fast, but yet in what almost felt like slow motion. He was conscious, but then, he wasn’t. Jenna was there, she saw it happen. 911 was called immediately. Josh woke up in a hospital bed to Tyler sitting beside him.   
“Ty?”   
“Dude! You’re up!” he exclaimed excitedly.   
“Why am I here?” Josh asked  
“The doctor says you’re pretty dehydrated, when was the last time you drank anything?” Tyler asked.  
He didn’t respond. That’s when Josh noticed the tubes full of fluids going into his body. He jolted up in bed.  
“Get them out! Get these tubes out of my body!”  
Tyler just thought Josh wanted to go home, out of the hospital. A doctor walked in.  
“Sir you should really stay here getting fluids for at least the day.”   
“Let me out!” He screamed, already starting to try and pull out the tubes. The doctor sighed and he was taken off the machines. Despite pleas from the hospital staff, Tyler, Jenna, in the end he signed the papers to leave against medical advice. Josh didn’t say anything on the drive home except one sentence.  
“They’re trying to kill me.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Debby isn't in this fic, sorry. As much as I love her I felt like she would get in the way of the story. Maybe next time.


	5. Chapter 5

Dear Tyler,  
The government knows that I know what they’re up to and now they’re trying to kill me.


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The hallucinations start.

Dear Tyler,   
There’s a strange noise following me around. It sounds like a woman. She’s talking, she’s saying something, but it’s too quiet to make out. I’m confused. I’m scared. It’s weird.


	7. Chapter 7

Dear Tyler,  
There’s a popping sound in my ears. Something’s sizzling. What’s sizzling? I’m scared.


	8. Chapter 8

Dear Tyler,   
There’s people walking through my house. There’s strange people in my house. What the heck is going on. They all look the same. Bright red hair. Bright red eyes. The iris and the pupil. There’s rings of red around their eyes. They’re wearing all black. They have red and black gloves. One’s black and one is red.There’s red orbs floating around as they walk by. I’m terrified. I’m so scared of them. Are they real?


	9. Chapter 9

Dear Tyler,  
I feel bugs crawling up my arms. I can’t see them, but they feel like they’re there. Why is this happening?


	10. Chapter 10

Dear Tyler,   
I keep hearing this sound. Like a balloon popping. Is a balloon popping?

The people are back. With the red hair. The orbs too.


	11. Chapter 11

Dear Tyler,  
The orbs haven’t gone away. The red ones. It’s freaking me out.


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A longer one this time. The next "real" chapter. Tyler calls Josh crazy. 
> 
> Tyler does say a mild swear word (d*** it) once in this chapter, btw.

Josh lied awake in bed under the covers. He wanted to sleep, but he couldn’t. He was too scared. He saw purple shadows walk around the bed. He felt so dizzy and lightheaded from not drinking water. His head constantly hurt. He wanted rest more than anything. Then, he heard giggles. It sounded like two young girls gligging inside the walls. That’s when he couldn’t take it anymore. He felt like a burden to disturb Tyler, but he was petrified.  
“What?” The man’s voice sounded tired and slightly annoyed.  
“Shadows- not alone- someone’s- please come over.”  
With droopy eyes and tired bones, he took the spare key and welcomed himself into Josh’s residence. He looked around the living room and after not seeing his friend he went straight to the bedroom. He saw Josh there trembling. He ran over to him, wrapping his arms around. Josh flinched at that at first.  
“What’s wrong?” he asked  
Josh was glad the ‘visions’ had left, but he was still very shaken up. He had wrapped his blanket around him and had been huddled up in that.  
“I...thought I saw something. It looked...like there were people walking around me.”  
‘Were they even real?’ Josh thought  
“Probably just a trick of the light.” Tyler stated, whilst rubbing his frightened friend’s back trying to comfort him.  
“Can- Can you stay the night?” Josh asked, his head swinging towards Tyler suddenly.  
“Oh uh, yeah. Yeah sure. I’ll go sleep on the couch. Don’t worry about it.” he said  
Josh smiled.  
“Hey, have you been drinking enough water lately?” he asked.  
His smile stopped.  
“Damn it, Josh. You need to drink water.”  
“It’s not good for you. It’s trying to kill me.”  
Tyler exhaled.  
“You gotta stop, you gotta stop, man. Stop joking around and take care of yourself. Seriously, stop buying into these crazy conspiracy theories. G’night.”  
Tyler left the room before Josh could say anything.  
‘It’s not crazy.’ he thought, lying back down to try to go to sleep again.  
Eventually he did.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tyler does care about him, he really does. He just doesn't understand yet.


	13. Chapter 13

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Josh doesn't feel like he can take it anymore.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one is intense. I hope you read the tags.

He woke up before daylight. Then he saw them. Two girls. One in a blue dress, one in a pink dress. He gasped.  
“You can’t run from us, Josh. We’re in the water. We’re poison. You know too much, Josh. We’ll kill you.”  
Still, he jumped out of bed. They were still giggling as he wrote. He wrote to ‘Tyler’ again. He wrote letters addressed to him that he never showed him because he didn’t know how to actually talk about it. He wrote about what he saw, what he heard, and then, another letter.

Dear Tyler,  
They’ll never take me alive.


	14. Chapter 14

Tyler found him soon after. He had stabbed himself in the chest. His lung had collapsed. Josh was asleep for a few days. They finally got to treat his dehydration. When Tyler found him, he also found his journal of letters - letters for him. When he read it he was horrified. He wasn’t scared of Josh, he was scared for Josh.

“So he, he isn’t drinking any water at all and I was too ignorant! He’s convinced it will kill him… I called him crazy, I laughed at him! I should’ve gotten him help! And he’s having all these horrible hallucinations and he’s so terrified! He needs help!” Tyler exclaimed  
Jenna held him. She hated seeing her husband so upset, and of course she was concerned for Josh.  
“Hey, hey. Everything will be okay. Josh will be okay. We’re gonna get him help. Everything will get better. He’ll get better.” She said softly, gently stroking the back of his neck.   
Tyler couldn’t begin to imagine just how scared Josh was. He’d experienced mental illness, yeah, but nothing like this. He must be so scared.   
“There were signs! But I ignored them!”   
Tyler thought back to when the water thing started. He brushed it off. When Josh had passed out, he just thought he had been busy or stressed or something. What he had been saying days prior had completely slipped his mind. When he went home, he assumed he would start drinking more water. Tyler just never wanted to consider that Josh was so sick.  
“I’m so stupid! I’m an idiot!” he screamed  
Jenna hugged him tighter.  
“Hey, hey, don’t say that. It’s hard to know what’s going on in someone else’s head, especially when it’s complicated like this. Josh is going to be okay.” She comforted him.  
“He stabbed himself.”  
“I know honey, I know, but he’ll be okay. He’s gonna get better. Physically and mentally. His lung will heal and we’ll make sure he gets the treatment he needs for what’s going on in his brain, okay honey?” She stated.  
He nodded. She has always been good at calming him down or at least helping him during his dark moments. 

A few days later, when they found out Josh was awake, they rushed over to the hospital.


	15. Chapter 15

“Hey Josh…” Tyler said calmly. He didn’t want to overwhelm him.  
“They’re poisoning me again.” He said, his voice weak.  
“That must be really scary and upsetting for you.” He said, sitting down next to the hospital bed.  
“Mhm.” Muttered Josh, “Make them stop.”   
Tyler let out a sigh.  
“To me, it seems like the doctors became doctors because they want to make people feel better. Do you think they would wanna hurt you?”  
Josh thought for a minute.   
“I don’t know.”  
“I think you’re safe here.” He told Josh.  
Josh didn’t say anything. His eyes wandered across the room he didn’t want to be in. He wanted so badly to leave, but he knew, with injuries like this, he shouldn’t. Josh slumped down in the bed.   
“I don’t wanna be here.” He muttered.  
“The hospital?” Tyler asked.  
“Not just that, I don’t wanna be alive anymore…”   
Tyler felt horrible seeing him like this.  
There was a knock on the door.   
“Can I come in?” Jenna asked, peeking through the door as she opened it slightly.   
“Yeah, yeah.”   
She showed a soft smile as she looked at Josh. She had so much hope for his recovery. 

He laid there, alone in that hospital room. Visiting hours where over, Tyler and Jenna had left, he had been left alone with his psychosis. They had come back. The red men. Those floating red dots that seemed to always accompany them lingered around the corners of the room. He hated it. He hated it so much. He tried to close his eyes, to sleep it off, to wake up alone, but he couldn’t sleep. Not like this.


	16. Chapter 16

“The Red Men came back.” was the first thing he said when they visited him again the next day. Not even a hello.   
“The...Red Men?” Tyler asked, a bit confused.  
Then he figured out what he probably meant. He wrote about them.  
“Oh Josh, I’m so sorry.” Jenna exclaimed.  
She wished she could hug him. Tyler sat down.  
“It must’ve been really scary.” Tyler stated.   
Josh nodded.   
“I wanna go home. I want the weird noises and people to leave me alone, too. But I really wanna go home soon.”  
“I know Josh, I know. And I promise you will soon. You just need to get better first. You need to talk to the doctor about what's going on." Tyler said.  
"They can't know I know about the water… what will happen to me?"  
Tyler and Jenna looked at each other, worried. Jenna squeezed her husband's hand.

Tyler told the doctors about Josh's delusions, hallucinations, the things he wrote to him. He felt almost awkward telling these basically strangers all this personal stuff going on in someone else's head, but he knew it was beneficial for Josh.


	17. Chapter 17

Josh's attention moved from Jenna. He was looking around, searching for something. He was. He could hear the sizzling again. He was scared. Scratch that, terrified. Jenna was worried.  
"Josh, Josh what's going on?"   
He began to scratch at his face. Clawing at it, even. Like a frantic cat at a scratching post. A doctor had to come in and sedate him. Jenna and Tyler were advised to leave.


	18. Chapter 18

Josh didn't feel like himself anymore. 'What's wrong with me?' He thought. 'Why are I like this? I can't even tell what's real and what's not.' The next time a nurse came to check on him, he said something concerning.  
"Can you euthanize me?"


	19. Chapter 19

They weren't allowed to visit Josh for a few days. Tyler was a bit of a mess. Jenna wasn’t taking it well, either. He was never just the best friend of Tyler, he was a friend of hers, too. It was hard, but they made it through. For Josh.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's all I've written so far, all posted to AO3. I'll definitely write more of this and post it here. I just need to write it first.


End file.
